Will Pats join in union salute?

[Uncle Rico]

I didn't see this Thursday night but heard about it on the radio. Reading about it on ESPN.com:

In a demonstration of togetherness with a potential labor battle coming after the season, the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints walked onto the field and raised their index fingers in unison.

It sounds like more a spontaneous thing than something the NFLPA orchestrated:

Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson is on the NFL Players Association's board of player representatives.

But he was caught off guard when the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints made a public display of union solidarity before Thursday night's game in the Superdome.

"When I saw it," Wilson said, "it sent chills down my body."

NFL Nation Blog - ESPN

It'll be interesting to see if the Pats players do this Sunday.

 

[Triumph]

I hope so.

For the Jets NE should have a special salute. The middle finger.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Word up was that several NFL execs were POed by the demonstration.
Hope the parties don't let things get outa control and we lose 2011. Hate to lose any Brady window season.

 

[Pats726]

THIS is a players solidarity deal and there is NO problem with it at all.....

 

[Triumph]

THIS is a players solidarity deal and there is NO problem with it at all.....

Thats right.

Too bad if the NFL doesnt like it.

 

[Calciumee]

Thats right.

Too bad if the NFL doesnt like it.

Agree with this! It's the players showing a togetherness that affects them, so the NFL can stick it

 

[Uncle Rico]

The Kraft-Brady relationship, the contract, and the high profile of both in the labor-ownership scene makes this interesting to me.

With the special relationship they have, I can see Brady going to Kraft and telling him beforehand, "Look, I'm a player, this is something the guys want to do and I need to stand with them."

FWIW, I heard in the radio that Favre did not take part; they let him off the hook b/c he won't play next year, but it seems to me he's benefitted somewhat from the efforts of the NFLPA and his teammates.

 

[drew4008]

I sure as hell hope not. Leave your union bullsh*t off the field, I don't have any interest or sympathy for professional athletes making millions of dollars and it makes me sick to see them do this. I thought it was completely unprofessional the other night.

 

[mgteich]

The differences between the owners and players concerns the division of revue between players and owners. The differences concern retirees, health care, and the players at the lower end of the nfl, those whose total career is a couple of years.

In then end, I understand that there are fans who side with the owners and would like the players to have less. I understand that there are fans that would continue to send large subsidies to owners who mismanage their businesses.

I STRONGLY support the Kraft's and yes the Polian's and other top owners. I also STRONGLY support the players.

Do you understand that if there are missed games, the fans won't pay for those games. The players will receive nothing and the owners will receive TV monies (to be repaid later).

The players make millions of dollars. Sticking together is one thing..but keep it the hell off of the field. Fans are the ones that are paying, in many cases, through the nose.

Unions, and demonstrations, for workers trying to get an extra buck per hour, or some health benefit, is fine... but players in professional sports that are raking in the dough, salaries, endorsements, speaking engagements, royalties from other things.... per dium when on the road, exclusive hotels...evan buck for an autograph session..... demonstrations like that are ridiculous.

How would they like it if all the owners got together at the Super Bowl and did the same thing.......

Keep that kind of crap off of the field and at the negotiation table instead, where it belongs.

 

[Patstopia]

There should be some kind of salute from the fans to show our unison against any lockout/strike by the union or the owners.

 

[SuperPatsFan]

several NFL execs were POed by the demonstration

Justifiably so. What happened in New Orleans this past Thursday was a deliberately provocative act by the players, signaling their intransigence, undoubtedly intended to force a showdown. Thus, whatever happens in 2011 is completely their responsibility.

 

[mgteich]

Ignorance is an art.

Justifiably so. What happened in New Orleans this past Thursday was a deliberately provocative act by the players, signaling their intransigence, undoubtedly intended to force a showdown. Thus, whatever happens in 2011 is completely their responsibility.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Personally I think it's horse****...in large part because pro athletes don't have unions so much as associations that act like the entertainment superagent intent on getting every last nickle funneled to them. These aren't the poor bastids now living under a bridge because after playing the game for years at a time during which they seldom made a fraction of what a jag makes today that the same association under the great Gene Upshaw claimed were not his organizations constituentcy. They are the present members of his consituency who have continued to let their predecessors lanquish preferring to focus on the present and the future...and insure that guys like Jabustus and Vick can squander money they never earned...

Owners aren't asking them to do any more than back off the last sea change pie grab that Gene shoved down everyone's throat under while holding a gun to the league's head in the form of a threat of a player initiated work stoppage in 2006...and let some accountability and rationality be added to the rules. Maybe owners should meet at midfield too...not. Quit negotiating in public and pressure your representatives to get to work in private and do a deal that works fairly for both sides and in the process insures that no one gets left behind living under a bridge...even if he does so increasingly through his own damn fault because he was making millions for a time and just blew through 'em. If you listen to some of the guys who played a decade or two ago they will tell you that for years they fought to get that "union" to focus on what players truly needed long term and their pleas fell on deaf ears because the union mantra was it's all about the $$$ and trickle down. No other outfit operates on the assumption it's hourly employees however talented deserve to pocket 60% of revenue and then be taken care of for life to boot and the kid you hire out of college can demand to be paid as much if not more than you're established proven employees or the guy who can't show up and work because he's suspended or incarcerated can keep the advances or guarantees in his contract because some lawyer arbitrators interpretation of language flies in the face of common sense....

Felger again spent all day on his contrarian soap box claiming if there is a lockout it's the owners fault because the owners are all millionaires and their teams are all worth billions and the poor players are just fine with the status quo and arent' asking for another thing... What the hell else could they ask for. They have exactly Gene Upshaw ever told them they wanted, and according to Felger that must mean if it ain't broke don't try to fix it. He should to tell that to the bridge dwellers... One of these days a franchise is going to go belly up and there isn't going to be a viable plan in place to salvage it, and then there will be another and soon team values which are a house of cards with little asset value to back them up will start to plummet. Heirs can't hang on to these overvalued paper houses and as the dinasours who told earlier generations of players to rub some dirt on it or stick a needle in it and get back on the field like Ralph and Al croak and teams have to be sold to pay inheritence taxes and the guys who bought into this league when team values were approaching or exceeding half a million will be upside down on them in a shrinking market.

 

[PlainOldEd]

I didn't see this Thursday night but heard about it on the radio. Reading about it on ESPN.com:



It sounds like more a spontaneous thing than something the NFLPA orchestrated:

it was orchestrated. No doubt about it.

 

[Tunescribe]

THIS is a players solidarity deal and there is NO problem with it at all.....

I hate it, and just might boo them tomorrow. I have no problem with the players having a union, but they don't need to be in OUR faces about. Without us fans they wouldn't have their millions in salaries, and we're not part of whatever beef they think they have with ownership.

 

[SuperPatsFan]

No other outfit operates on the assumption it's hourly employees however talented deserve to pocket 60% of revenue and then be taken care of for life to boot

Invalid comparison, IMHO.

The typical American ham-and-egger, blue-collar or white, is an interchangeable cog in the capitalist machine. He's worth zero to the company and he's easily replaced -- basically a piece of human garbage.

The NFL players, OTOH, are responsible for virtually all of the NFL's revenue stream. The players in effect cannot be replaced (remember '87?). If the players go, the vast majority of the revenue goes with them.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

it was orchestrated. No doubt about it.

It absolutely was. Drew Brees is not only NO player rep, he is a member of the NFLPA Executive Council that Mawae remains president of and Vrabel is a member of (I believe there are 9 members). I actually thought the comical part was that not all the players joined in, some rushed out when they saw a display they could enter, but most were oblivious which has been the long history of the membership... People forget this is an outfit that agreed years ago to accept 6 years for FA in exchange for an uncapped final year and then forgot to make that clear to a couple of hundred players - many of whom were reportedly clueless to the implications prior to this spring - whose lives and careers could be dramatically changed forever as a result...

 

[ausbacker]

I hate it, and just might boo them tomorrow. I have no problem with the players having a union, but they don't need to be in OUR faces about. Without us fans they wouldn't have their millions in salaries, and we're not part of whatever beef they think they have with ownership.

It's like a circle...

 

[JoeSixPat]

THIS is a players solidarity deal and there is NO problem with it at all.....

Yeah - I'm not exactly a big union sympathizer, but if they want to hold their fingers up in a show of solidarity, why should that be a problem?

It's some pretty minor yet wise form of posturing, and as long as they go out and play the game, they can certainly do what they want as long as its not a total distraction. Holding your index finger up is hardly a major distraction.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Invalid comparison, IMHO.

The typical American ham-and-egger, blue-collar or white, is an interchangeable cog in the capitalist machine. He's worth zero to the company and he's easily replaced -- basically a piece of human garbage.

The NFL players, OTOH, are responsible for virtually all of the NFL's revenue stream. The players in effect cannot be replaced (remember '87?). If the players go, the vast majority of the revenue goes with them.

Nah, it always comes back. They aren't the game, just the guys playing it at this level at this moment. Other guys will play when they are gone. Might be ugly for a while, but all those college kids who make millions for their schools will be coming along and fans will embrace them just like they have the current transient batch of millionaire ham and eggers. The guys like Kraft who grew the pie will still be baking, in part because he was smart enough to negotiate that the vast majority of revenue will still come to the owners who don't have to pay the players. And as in '87 when a lot more was on the line for players than a couple of % share they will come back because they can't walk away from the money.